SM IM DM FB Peeps Tweeps - Wot?!

How quickly the world changes - the acroynms in this blog's title were all new to me in 2009.

For those old and young fogies (no offence!) reading this, lets get them out of the way then - Social Media, Instant Message, Direct Message (not Direct Mail!), Facebook, People, Twitter People. And "what?!".

Like everyone else in the social media space, I'm learning really fast.

There's a pile of new jargon, but there's also a pile of really cool apps (applications) to help make life interesting and maybe a little easier. And a lot of it is free, if you make the time to figure it out.

In a small town like Blenheim (Marlborough, New Zealand) you can physically walk through town and bump into half a dozen people you know. You can go to a function, and know more than half the people in the room. If you need a service, you just ask someone you know, and get a recommendation.

Living in a small town is sort of like living in the Social Media space, in real time, but not online! So you'd almost be forgiven for thinking you don't need SM if you live somewhere tiny. But not quite ...

Forgetting all the cool new words, the role of Social Media is to provide a platform and an environment to interact with people anywhere in the world, anytime. And that's it, nice and simple.

The really clever 'peeps' have worked out how to use it to make loads of money directly from Twitter and the like. The slightly less clever, but still quite clever ones incorporate SM into their business, as a communications - and dare I say a marketing - tool.

There are people all over the world interested in what you do, so the SM space simple enables you to talk with those people. The interaction may result in business, or it may just teach you something interesting. Either way, its a win then.

Why is Facebook so popular? Because it brings people together, and we are all naturally wired to connect with other people.

My own Facebook page has about 35 "friends" - many of whom I would probably not otherwise write to, send cards to, or pick up the phone for a chat. But I chat with, "like", and comment on their posts all the time. So there's 35 people (and growing) I'm more connected with than I was before.

Twitter is a different environment again! If Facebook is like a cafe with friends and family sitting at all the tables, then Twitter is a crowded, chaotic carnival. Still lots of people and interaction going on, but its noisy and crazy! But for some 'tweeps', it's the perfect environment for doing business.

Then there's Digg, Linked In, Delicous and all the others! And Google Wave is in test mode too, so its all only just started.

If you read my last blog about keeping up with new stuff, and being open to learning, then that applies here. Social Media is here to stay. Get on board, and dont' be left wondering where the party is!

Learning is a Competitive Advantage

August marked the fifth birthday for The Marketing Department NZ. And what a journey its been! It seems a very long time ago I was knocking on doors asking for work.

But this post is not about how to get a start-up business off the ground (I'll save that for another time!).

I've been pondering a lot lately about my (and therefore people in general) capacity to learn.

In the five years since I set up this marketing business, it seems like I have learn to drive a million different software applications and technology gadgets.

Just for fun I'll list just a few of the new applications I've had to get my head around:
Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator
Website Content Management Systems
Accounting package
Project Management software upgrades
Publisher
Office's basic 2007 upgrades - Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook etc.
Skype
Blogger
Twitter
Zoombrowser
HTML
Mozilla
Filezilla
Online survey tools
Google -Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, etc etc
And thats just the stuff I can name top of mind before I go and check my "all programmes" tab.

Then there's all the technical back-end things that make marketing's 'front end' look fantastic - design, composition, photography, copywriting, styles, CMS, digital printing, offset printing, PPC, Adsense - all the things that as a corporate buyer of creative marketing services I never had to worry about.

I'm resigned to the fact that stuff just keeps changing, and if you don't keep up, you get left behind.

So what's my point?

The only real competitive advantage we have as individuals or enterprises, is the ability to learn, adapt and apply.

The world WILL keep changing. We can either go with it, or get left behind.

To be successful in business - or successful in any chosen pursuit - then it's just a fact of life that you will be constantly coming up against things you need to understand, learn, and incorporate into how you do your stuff.

So get over it, and start learning!